AT&T Wants FCC to Do Away with PTSN, Regulate Wireless

Telecom giant AT&T is lobbying the Federal Communications Commission again. This time, however, it has nothing to do with net neutrality or Google Voice. Not directly, anyway.

MobileBurn.com reported Thursday that AT&T wants the FCC to drop required support of the public switched telephone network (PTSN). The company calls the landline system "A relic of a bygone era" and points out that 700,000 landline subscriptions are dropped every month. The letter also notes that "99 percent of Americans have wireless coverage today." A national broadband plan makes more sense in today's world than required landline support, according to AT&T.

Writer Todd Haselton says:

AT&T did not ask for a specific switch date, but under AT&T's proposal the federal government would regulate high-speed broadband access. That means it would also have to make access to wireless or high-speed broadband as affordable for low-income families as landline service is.

Since the US is rather large, wireless-only communications is non-trivial. 4G is just beginning in large cities. It may be cheaper to deploy due to broader area covered per tower, but has anyone seriously mapped the optimal (government owned vs multiple private owned) deployment to provide what we had in bad old days with landline systems? I almost prefer socialism to the mess we have today attempting to use cell phones while traveling. If 4G would fix that problem optimally with regulated national plan.

Greed leads to cities getting all the coverage.

What is the plan for the rest of us that prefer living away from all that stress?